Intelligence agencies in the US, Europe and the Middle East have apparently broken up an attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner to mark the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. (news.blogs.cnn.com) More...

It doesn't help that the US footprint in the world is about 200 million square miles and it's shaped like a sphere. We can't put all of this effort in to pissing everybody off and then wonder why everybody's pissed off.

Yea, lots of deterrence is being done by the Terminally Stupid Assholes. 4 years old girls being groped. 80 years old Purple Heart winners being abused. Lots of guns getting through without detection. I even had a Swiss Army Knife accidentally let in my backpack make it through "security" screening. Oh - did I mention these were all white folks? Heaven forbid should there be any special attention given to Islamic people!

I don't know why they go after airliners. There are public sporting events with a lot more people (and much less security than an airport) that they could target. What is it about the airline industry?

I honestly do NOT care about the indepth secuirty measures that the TSA take. Sure look down my pants, I'll go into a scanner. Whatever they need for our safety I'm ok with. I'm tired of hearing people complain about being violated because of trying to keep us safe.

If there was any proof the current method created security, I would be in favor of it too. The problem is there is proof that the system is completely ineffective. Frisking 4 year old girls hasn't stopped a single incident. On the contrary, it has created hate and contempt for the federal goverment that is contitutionally required to protect our rights, not violate them.

Are you sure it hasn't stopped an incident? If certain easy loopholes of attack (such as using children) were shown to not be available, how can you say for sure that it didn't cause terrorists to say "well back to the drawing board, that won't work"? That's the thing about deterrence, sadly you never can have evidence of a plan being thwarted before being acted out.

You can't prove the absence of a threat and that for some people apparently justifies any security measure, no matter how draconian. The only safe society is on permanent lockdown, but evidently people are starting to warm up to that idea. Terms like "probable cause" are starting to lose their meaning these days.

Dude, If the TSA stopped a big operation from taking place they would buy a billboard on Broadway to tell us all about it. They've stopped nuns in wheel chairs, and nursing mothers carrying explosive breast milk from wreaking havoc in the sky. They've stopped a few knives that were left inadvertently in bags, that would have caused no problems had they made it through. Security Theatre, is not security. Criminal profiling, and good police work by the agencies off the airport have been far more effective.

Well I am not at all okay with it. When I was in school, I was learning about how we are in a free country. Now it saddens me that it is getting more and more like a police state, and that the American people seem to like this.